Any way you slice it

Full disclosure (I don’t want to get sued by the FTC). This post is sponsored by the Slice Slab.

You see, Dave has sort of stumbled into the cutting board business. That doesn’t sound at all odd, does it?

Long story short, we got our hands on some excess Corian (think poor-man’s granite), a state-of-the-art machine designed for cutting countertops and the like out of huge slabs of wood, granite and plastic, and an ingenious design for a unique and fabulous carving board. See, not weird at all.

A pretty neat design (thanks Roy) was made even better after we had the idea to put a graduated “spout” on the corner of the board so you could use the juices collected in the grooves of the board to make gravy and other sauces. This idea came after Q made mess of my mother’s stovetop last Thanksgiving trying to transfer turkey juices from one of those disposable foil roasting pans to make gravy. I present to you, the Slice Slab:

We tested it out, and it works like a charm. I’ll show you if you promise not to judge my filmmaking skills …

You get the idea. We’re shamelessly pimping it on YouTube. All kidding aside, I seriously love this cutting board. Even if you aren’t planning to harvest those cooking juices, it makes cleanup super easy, and it’s dishwasher safe. Not to mention really good-looking.

Anyway, since this is a cooking blog (and Dave made me promise gravy recipes in our video) without further ado, I give you the easiest homemade gravy recipe you will ever use to impress your in-laws:

Homemade turkey, beef or chicken gravy

You’ll need:

about 1/4 to 1/2 cup drippings

about 2 to 4 cups of liquid — either broth or water

flour as needed to thicken

salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Using your handy dandy Slice Slab … oh wait, you don’t have one? You can buy it here, then.

Now that that’s taken care of, funnel the juices and drippings from your turkey/beef/chicken carving and any from the pan you cooked with into a sauce pan (as I mentioned, this can get messy, so I suggest you pour the juices from the pan right onto the slice slab, then funnel them neatly into your sauce pan!). Add two-thirds of the broth or stock to the sauce pan. Place it on the stove at medium heat.

In another container, use the remaining broth or water to make a roux. If the liquid is not already warm, heat slightly and slowly add flour, one tablespoon at a time, whisking to dissolve the flour. Once the roux is smooth and starting to thicken a little, add it to the sauce pan and stir. Add spices to taste and additional flour to thicken as needed—in very small increments so it won’t clump.

Gravy isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing food in the world, so instead, I’ll leave you with this for inspiration. Happy Carving.